HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 



47 



The emperor penguins further differ from the 

 king penguins in never setting foot on land and 

 in hatching their young during the coldest and 

 darkest days of the Antartic winter. The breed- 

 ing season of the king penguin, on the other hand, 

 is spread over the Antartic summer. 



There is a well-known king penguin rookery 

 on Macquarie Island. On the east end of the 

 island there is a fringe of kelp; above this, a 

 stretch of pebbles, and then numerous tussocks 

 of tall, coarse grass. Batchelors and unemployed 

 females are found among the tusisocks, but the 

 breeding birds are huddled together in a large 

 stony quagmire, wh ch extends inwards towards 

 an overhanging range of h : lls. 



The king penguin colony on the Macquarie 

 Island usually consists in November of a great 

 crowd of breedings birds, a few adults in the act 

 of moulting, of numerous immature birds, and 

 of a considerable number of chicks, 1 , still wearing 

 a thick coat of long, hair-like down. 



When the late Mr. E. A. Wilson, of the 

 "Discovery" Expedition, visited the Macquarie 

 Island in November, he found a large number of 

 king penguins busily incubating eggs so recently 

 laid that they proved a most acceptable addition 

 to the breakfast table. The visit of Mr. Wilson 

 made it abundantly clear why the egg of the king 

 penguin, instead of being laid in a nest, rests on 

 -the feet of the female or her mate, or of other 

 members of the colony, allowed to assist in the 

 process of incubation. 



All through the breeding season the penguins 

 are constantly marching to and from the sea, 

 whence they obtain the fish, crustacea, and cephal- 

 opods on which they live. One result of these 

 daily journeys is that the quagmire, sooner or 

 later, becomes a foul-smelling sea of mud. To 

 give the chick a chance of developing, the egg 

 must be kept dry and clean. Even with the egg 

 rest'ng on the feet, this would be difficult in the 

 rookery, but for the presence of stones in the 

 quagmire, large enough to afford standing room 

 for one or more of the birds taking part in the 

 incubation. 



The desire to mother something is very strong 

 in penguins. Mr. Wilson estimated that over 70 

 per cent, of the emperor chicks hatched are killed 

 by kindness — if an emperor chick is deserted for 

 a few minutes, there is at once a scrimmage of a 

 dozen or more adults for its possession. In the 

 case of the king penguin, the competition for the 

 chicks is not so great, but there are probably 

 always two or three brds, in addition to the 

 parents, anxious to take part in the incubation of 

 the egg and, later, in the feeding of the growing 

 chick. 



On the "Discovery" an emperor chick was 

 kept alive for a considerable time on seal flesh; 

 it required to be fed by night as well as by day. 

 During the night it attracted the attention of its 

 keeper by whistling, and then waited patiently 

 for about twenty minutes while the flesh was 

 being masticated. 



It is worthy of special note that in the case 

 of the king penguin in the Scottish Zoological 

 Park the per :od of incubation extended over 7 

 weeks and 4 days* — that is the time usually said 

 to be occupied in the hatching of an emperor 

 penguin, and it may be safely asserted that this 

 is the first occasion on which a king penguin has 

 been hatched outside the Antartic regions. 



If the parents succeed ! n rearing their chick, 

 a unique record will be established. 





SHORTAGE OF OSTRICHES. 



QUESTION OF FUTURE SUPPLIES. 



A Port Elizabeth correspondent of the " Cape 

 Times" in dealing with the feather revival that 

 has taken place, says : — 



Perhaps the most important phase of the 

 present condition of the market is the question 

 of future supplies. There is no need to recapitu- 

 late the factors connected with the great reduc- 

 tion of the Union's flocks of ostriches during the 

 past five years. Beyond this result of the severe 

 depression and the terrible drought of 1915 — 16, 

 another result which is looming large as a factor 

 in toi-day's and the future situation is the indiffer- 

 ence which hundreds of farmers (particularly the 

 smaller farmers;) have displayed towards those of 

 their birds which have survived. They have not 

 carried out the usual periodical plucking, with the 

 result that the feathers on their birds have dete- 

 riorated in quality severely. This means that 

 there is, this season at any rate, bound to be a 

 somewhat pronounced lack of the best types. 

 Then we have the effect of the death of so many 

 thousands of birds. The fact is that everything 

 points to a very acute shortage in the supply at 

 no distant date. It is looming near now. 



At the present moment the supplies on the 

 market are almost entirely pre-war stock which 

 has been stored away in preservatives for five 

 long years. When these are worked off the mar- 

 ket will find itself short, and that fact opens up 

 a whole vista of possibilities. On the one hand 

 you have the feather rapidly advancing in favour 

 as the ruling fashion, and on the other you have 

 the only country producing the best types unable 



